Around The Corner
by frozenfemale
Summary: Around the corner, lies joy. Around the corner, lies love. Around the corner, lies innocence. Around the corner, lies hope… Around the corner… is a deeper insight to the world. Do you dare to take the step and go around the corner?


            Around the corner, lies joy.

            Around the corner, lies love.

            Around the corner, lies innocence.

            Around the corner, lies hope…

            _That was what my mom used to say. But… those were just dreams. Too many tears have been shed for a dream that is too far to be caught to be made slave to reality. Too much blood has been shed on that account. It is all a dream… a dream longed by the world to be real, but only a dream._

_            I have seen, with my own eyes, innocent lives, roughly snatched away. I have heard joyful laughter turning into sorrowful mourning the very next day. We, the weaker species, are trampled on everyday. Yet, we stubbornly hold on to that precious and thin thread called hope. Even though our tears run dry, we try our best to put on a smile, waiting patiently for salvation to come._

_            I, however never believed in it. The world is a cruel place. Unfairness and injustice rule this world, and it just goes on in a mundane circle. It is never going to change. We ought not to believe in such a weak and fragile thing like hope. _

_            One day though, something happened. Something that turned this skeptic into a believer._

* * * * * * * * * *

I woke up to a typical sunny morning, blinking as merciless rays of sun pierced my eyes.

            "It's a beautiful morning," my mom greeted me.

            "Why don't you play with your siblings?" 

            I peeped out, and felt anger rising in me. They were always playing around as if nothing happened. That disturbed me.

            "Mom!"

            She turned to me, her features soft and filled with love.

            "How can they play so happily? How could _you _let them?" 

            "Honey, this is our way of life. We have no other choice. This _is _our routine, our life." She did not even need to think of her answer. She had long anticipated that I would ask her that.

            "But my… our youngest sister just…'

            "Dear," she cut in, "You have got to understand. It is our fate… it is everybody's fate to die. God knows the best timing. We try our best to save, but if God wills, we let it go. There is no use harboring anger and unforgiveness in your heart. The world is so large, but God is greater and bigger. God will punish them at the right time." 

            Even before she finished, I was already stomping off. I was tired of hearing this lecture every time someone I knew died. 

            "There's no use being angry with the people who killed your sister. You cannot do anything about it. Leave it to God."

            I turned back, facing her.

            "I'm not angry with them, I am angry at God."

            Inwardly, I smiled at the sight of her face free of emotions, out of shock, for once. I was tired of seeing the love always present there. How could love be present there when she was not even bothered to avenge for someone she loved? I did not wait for further reactions, but continued my stomping, all the way out. I ignored my brother's call to play pointedly. 

            I hated it. I hated the way they kept acting as if it did not matter. I hated the way they tried to cover the real hard truth with elegant wordings. I hated the way they tried to cover the reality of injustice in the world with their fancy philosophies. I hated…

            A terrified scream cut through the fog of hate swirling in my brains. I whipped my head to the direction of one of my sisters. The whole lot had stopped playing, and were staring at me with an expression of pure horror written on their faces. I knew that look very well. It meant only one word: Death. I turned back slowly, somehow finding some hidden courage deep within me to look up.    

            I saw it then. The Enemy stood there. For the first time in my life, I saw him so close, in a position to strike. My blood turned to ice in my veins. I could not move a muscle as paralyzing fear enticed me into its clutch. My brains were too busy screaming "_UNFAIR!" to send impulses to the rest of my body parts to move._

            I stared into his black eyes, and found them surprisingly warm. They were not as cold as I imagined them to be. Then, with the speed of a striking snake, he attacked.

            I flew into the air.

            "Huh?" I breathed out. Realization hit me as I stood. Panic and deep fear overwhelmed me as I saw the Enemy catching hold of my mother's fragile body with his teeth.

            "MOTHER!" A drop of tear fell from my eyes.

            "No... It cannot be… Why mother? WHY?" I screamed. I could see that she was struggling to talk, and I wanted to ease her, to say that it did not matter, that she should conserve her energy. I did not need to know. However, I was faced with the ugly fact that I had an overpowering need to know.

            "Because you… you have yet to understand life and innocence." She coughed. She was pale, but she pushed on. 

"Because you have misinterpreted love for… weakness. Because…," But her strength failed her then. The Enemy gobbled her up.

            Behind me, my siblings screamed again. Then, I saw it, looming up behind the Enemy, stood, the Mortal Enemy.

* * * * * * * * * * 

            "Mommy, mommy, look! A lizard. Eww… it is eating a fly.' A small girl was tugging at her mother's shirt.

            "Look, mommy. There are so many flies over there. Do you think the lizard is eating their mommy? Do you, mommy?"

            "Darling, I don't think it works that way. I'm doubtful they even know who their mommies are.'

            The girl shook her head.

            "They know! Mommy, they do!" She said in absolute confidence, stamping her foot.

            "They do! They have feelings too, mommy.'

            'Okay, Ayako. I know you love insects. Let us go now. It is dirty here." The mother pulled the girl away.

            "I am sorry that you lost your mommy, dear flies," She whispered as she left.

            "I know you have feelings too. I am sure of it."

* * * * * * * * * *

            I was shocked. I never heard such beautiful words coming from the Mortal Enemy. They were supposed to be barbarians who did not care. 

            The Enemy, seeing the Mortal Enemy scampered off in terror.

            "Innocence… love… mother, I think I understand. Now, I think I understand.'

* * * * * * * * * *

            _Do you not understand it yet? They were happy not because they did not love, not because they admitted that they were weak, but because they loved, and because they were strong. Only the strong can continue living innocently and joyfully when they are forced to bow to the forces of nature occasionally. Only the one who has been love and who love can do that. _

_And now, this skeptic believes in that dream, that hope. Now, this skeptic believes that God knows what He is doing in the world._

_Around the corner… is a deeper insight to the world._

_            Do _you _dare to take the step and go around the corner?_

(1191 words)

A/N: If you are out there reading this, can you please tell me if there is anything wrong with it. Edit it. I want to learn. Yeah, I know it's been a LONG time since I updated on Terror and the likes. And I haven't even been reading on fanfiction. I'm really sorry. But I'm dying for lack of time now a days. This is not even a Slam Dunk fic. I just added in Ayako's name in it to post it up here. I need to know if there is anything wrong with it before I send this in for a competition I'm entering. *goes to her knees* Really, sorry.


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